An Honest Dialogue

After a loss, people often feel that they have no resources.

 

They feel they have no one to talk to about the extreme pain they are feeling.

 

A little over two years ago, I launched Cry, Laugh, Heal as a place where people could go to read and discuss grieving and say to themselves, "I'm not alone.  Someone else gets it."

 

Because in the end, no one ever wants to feel alone.

 

Since starting the blog I have written about grief and about the crucial process of trying to put the pieces of your life back together after the death of a loved one has blown it apart.  Besides grief, I have also explored the topics of nutrition, friendship, humor, honesty and raising a child by yourself after the death of a spouse.  Grief is a multi-dimensional issue and I think the above topics are but a few of the many handy-dandy tools that are related to surviving a loss.

 

I have found that an important part of grieving in a constructive way is acknowledging it, facing it head on and not running away from it and all of the shock and pain it causes.  Calling it what it is is soooo important.

Another crucial part of the grieving process is to reach out to others.  Do not be afraid to talk about your grief.  I'm not saying it's a 24/7 topic.  No topic can be talked about all the time.  But don't be afraid to say to someone you know who cares about you, "I feel awful" or even "I'm scared.  I have no idea what's going to happen next."

 

You will connect.

 

As did this very brave woman who is the subject of today's post.  Her final connection is truly powerful and was written about recently in the New York Times.  This woman found an inner peace and was not afraid to talk about what was happening to her.  Her story is raw yet she is courageous in an unprecedented way, giving of herself, reaching out and sharing until the end.

 

Please read this incredible story, share it and talk about it:

Martha Keochareon

As Nurse Lay Dying, Offering Herself as Instruction in Caring

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

The New York Times, Thursday, January, 10, 2013

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. — It was early November when Martha Keochareon called the nursing school at Holyoke Community College, her alma mater. She had a proposal, which she laid out in a voice mail message.

      

“I have cancer,” she said after introducing herself, “and I’m wondering if you’ll need somebody to do a case study on, a hospice patient.”

      

Perhaps some nursing students “just want to feel what a tumor feels like,” she went on. Or they could learn something about hospice care, which aims to help terminally ill people die comfortably at home.

      

“Maybe you’ll have some ambitious student that wants to do a project,” Ms. Keochareon (pronounced CATCH-uron) said after leaving her phone number. “Thank you. Bye.”

 

Please click on this link for the whole story:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/us/fatally-ill-and-making-herself-the-lesson.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp